Well, my time in the big D has already come to an end. I write this from another hotel room in Cleveland. Not going to the game tonight. Tickets for Quicken Loans are stupidly high and Cavs are probably resting LBJ, Ben and others. I had some days to kill and Cleveland is not far away.

But I will be back in Detroit in a few days. Why? Cos I scored a ticket to Game 1. Oh yeah!! Row 2 of upper level, dead on mid-court. How sweet it is!!

Ok, so not much to really draw from this game but there were positives. Firstly, I arrived at the arena about an hour before tip-off. I wanted to see all the build-up before the game. Didn't get to catch up with Warthog, but maybe on Sunday.

The stands were only 25% filled at best, so how stupid is it when you look at the boxscore and see a crowd of 22,016 turned up. HA! Sell-out streak my ass...

They were showing a 'Pistons at 50' feature on the scoreboard when I arrived. That was nice to watch while I waited. I guess they are showing it on local TV as well, but I don't live in Detroit so it was new to me. They went through the teal era, with interviews with Hill, Lindsey, Joe, Stack and others. I'm like, 'yeah, thanks for bringing back THOSE memories, but it was pretty interesting.

When I got to my seat Sheed was the only guy on court, taking some jumpers (both right and left handed of course). Then he was shooting 3's, taking a couple of steps back each time until he was shooting from mid-court. When he nailed one he ran off into the locker room much to the crowds delight.

I went down to the lower stands during warmups to get a closer look. Most of the guys were just joking around, Sheed and Lindsey in particular. AJ was practising his 3pt shots more than anything else. I think he nailed about 3 in a row, but jeez, his form is nothing special. Kind of shoots it from the side of his head. The guys were definitely looking relaxed. I was glad to see Chauncey out there cos it sounded like he may miss the game.

Rip started off ok, but the rest of the game was not great. He was forcing fade-away jumpers and trying to drive into 4 guys and losing the ball. Hopefully he pulls his head in when the real basketball begins. He is probably still a bit rusty from his lay-off.

Chauncey did his thing. No mistakes, Mr.Steady. A very quiet 18 points or whatever it was.

Tay wasn't really involved much at all.

Sheed only had 1 point at the half I think. His offense wasn't clicking but he was playing really solid D on Jefferson, even though Al was still a force inside. Problem I think was allowing Al to catch the ball so deep in the paint, or if he was catching it outside the paint, he would take 2 easy steps to get in there - then the guys would start to play D on him. There needs to be more denying or disruption of the entry pass. But Al's game really has taken off, he is a beast and future all-star, no doubt about that. His jump-hook is unstoppable.

Back to the other Pistons. Dyess did alright. He had a nice dunk after rebounding his own terrible miss. Showed some hustle.
Theo had a sweet block on Richard I think it was. Richard was at the rim and all of sudden Theo was there sending it back. Very nice to have a shot-blocking presence coming off the bench.
Lindsey came in and made some shots when the O was struggling. Every time he launches one of those long 2's I keep going, 'Noooo!' in my head, but then he'll make it. Happens every time. haha.

Max and AJ were aggressive on D but they bite on everything. I remember one play were I think it was Jefferson up-faked and both guys went sailing past him on either side. Funny to watch, but the guys still need to figure that out. Max was his usual energetic self on O, getting a nice O-Reb for a monster stick back. His FT shooting still needs work. If he is going to be getting fouled a lot, which teams are doing instead of letting him dunk, he's gonna have to get that up to at least 70%.

Stuckey did pretty well, but sometimes tried to force it into the paint too much, he would charge in there hoping to figure it out once he got there. Sometimes there just wouldn't be anywhere to go or pass it to and he'd be forced to throw up a difficult shot. He must have got blocked 4 times at least, but experience will help him, I like the aggressiveness anyway. He made some nice plays towards the end of the game, finding AJ and Max rolling to the basket for wide-open slams.

Afflalo didn't appear to have much of an impact, but he is a solid player fundamentally and didn't make any mistakes and hit a nice jumper at the end. His stroke looked very nice live.

And Hayes had a great game. He didn't force anything until perhaps towards the end. Every shot he took in the first 3 Q's was either open or in rhythm. Nothing forced. Hopefully his confidence will stay high even if he has a couple of bad shooting games in the playoffs. His offense is crucial to the 2nd unit.

Not going to talk about the Wolves too much except that McCants is pretty selfish. He got T'd up after he slammed on a couple of Pistons. Can't remember who it was, but they partially blocked that dunk. Then he ran into Stuckey going back down the court all fired up. I was like, 'Mate, look at the scoreboard!! What are you yelling about?' (They were down about 15 points)

Foye looked good, he has a nice jumper, but he won't ever be a big assist PG. More like Gilbert Arenas.

And I've already talked about Jefferson. I love his game, he should be in a Pistons jersey. No nonsense, going to work. He didn't get many whistles going his way last night but he rarely complained, just went back in there. Get on the phone Joe, he is a future Piston.

What else? Hmm. Well I noticed right away walking through the arena that a lot of Pistons fans were dressed in the gear. The point is, you could tell you were at a Pistons game, there was a good vibe in the crowd and everyone is passionate about the team. A HUGE difference to the Toronto crowd I was with last week. Good stuff!

That's about it I think. I'm back at the Palace on Sunday for Game 1. I can't wait to be with a packed arena, going off. Yesterdays crowd was deathly quiet.

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